Fictional Novels about Chess

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Avatar of Novocastrian4

Hey guys,

Does anyone have any good recommendations on fictional novels about chess? I read The Tournament by Mathew Reilly and The Queen's Gambit and both are enjoyable. Thanks

Avatar of chessroboto

The Eight by Katherine Neville

The Fire (sequel to The Eight)

Avatar of Novocastrian4

Thanks. How is The Eight?

Avatar of IpswichMatt

The Luzhin Defense by Nabokov

Nabokov is best known for his book "Lolita"

And gets a mention in the hit song "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by "The Police"

Avatar of Novocastrian4

Great. The Luzhin Defense looks interesting.

Avatar of ChessAuthor

The Ray Gordon series, starting with Even Dead Men Play Chess

Avatar of lighthouse

The Royal Game
 
The Royal Game (also known as Chess Story; in the original German Schachnovelle, "Chess Novella") is a novella by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig written in 1941, the year before the author's death by suicide.

Great book wink.png

Avatar of lighthouse

 & Alice in wonderland

 

Avatar of wltdr

The Chess Players by Frances Parkington Keyes 1960. A chess history of New Orleans and the life of Paul Morphythumbup.pngthumbup.png

Avatar of vonderlasa

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-related-novels-amp-stories

Avatar of chessroboto

I liked both "The Eight" and "The Fire" as the mystery was interjected with history akin to Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". You can read the introduction on Amazon for each book to get a better idea of the historical scope that the novels cover.

https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Katherine-Neville/dp/0345351371/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Novel-Katherine-Neville/dp/0345500679/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1614245326&sr=1-3

Avatar of JugglinDan

You might find something interesting on this Chess-themed Fiction list on Goodreads.

Avatar of Novocastrian4

That's for all of the replies. Plenty of books now to keep me occupied using your helpful links and recommendations. 

Avatar of blueemu

How about short stories?

The Three Sailors' Gambit by Lord Dunsany.

It was written more than a hundred years ago, and is now in the public domain (you can read it for free, online):

Tales of Wonder: The Three Sailors' Gambit (sacred-texts.com)